Marco Polo & Junior
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Conceived
as an animated musical not unlike Mulan, The Lion King or Aladdin,
and partially based on the true events of the world famous 13th
Century adventurer Marco Polo, "Marco
Polo & Junior" is
a very special story about the voyage of the great traveler and
his adopted child "Junior", a Eurasian-looking baby
who is mysteriously left with Marco Polo on his birthday and named
after the man of travels as a result. The story begins in 1271
- the year when the Polos set off from their homeland in Venice,
Italy to China. It tells the awesome story of how Junior grows
up in a foreign country and the invaluable education he receives
from different masters in the Great Palace of Kublai Khan of the
Mongolian Empire which was ruling China at the time. Here at the
legendary Palace of Khanbaliq in Beijing, Junior and Marco Polo
eventually discover the Magic Maps secretly kept inside the Golden
Pavilion which are claimed to be the key to reach the Ends of
the World - an unknown territory beyond Europe and Asia.
This is the animated "Crouching
Tiger Hidden Dragon" which could be turned into a real life
musical spectacle for the entire family. Even better, the performance
could be displayed on ice, giving a whole new meaning to the idea
of "East-Meets-West Entertainment".
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4 Halves
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Macau: the
Las Vegas of Asia - the city of dreamscapes and epiphanies, nightmares
and fantasies...
In this world
where dreams and realities collide, the story is an interior journey
exploring the deepest level of one's own identity - How do we
define the "Self"? What is our concept of an Individual?
What if we could become the person we truly want to be - genetically,
as well as possessing all their memories? And would we really
become that other person? The film posits the question: "Do
we really know who we are?"
Deanie, the Cultural
Minister of Macau, reunites inside the White Church with her husband
Mr. Kam, the famous jazz saxophonist who has been missing for
years. Mr. Kam, whose face is badly burnt and almost unrecognizable,
is taken to a very special clinic to undergo a 'Rejuvenation'
program - a state-of-the-arts plastic surgery combined with genetic
engineering that modifies DNA. It is at this moment when Deanie
has another idea - she decides to undergo the process herself
as well. When the bandages are finally removed from Deanie's face
after the program is complete, she is irreversibly transformed.
And from this onwards, the characters evolve into something entirely
eerie, culminating in the discovery of something even darker inside
Velvet Eyes, Club Cocaine's exclusive private club, where fantasy
and reality are coalesced with devastating results...
Part Francois Ozon, part David Lynch,
this surrealist art-house docudrama with four different endings
and two different versions (one in Macau and the other in Las
Vegas) is bound to create the biggest buzz in the film festival
circuits.
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